Once a Wasp, always a Wasp: The Premier 15s waves goodbye to an extraordinary team

After 38 years playing top-flight women’s rugby Wasps bowed out in style with a gutsy performance against Bristol Bears, in the final round of the Premier 15s regular season, surrounded by generations of Wasps and their families.

It was a day which truly encapsulated the club’s motto “Once a Wasp, always a Wasp” from start to finish.

Everywhere you looked there was a women’s rugby legend who had been part of the club's journey and will continue to be long after this season. The Wasps Legends formed a tunnel to cheer their team out onto the pitch before kick-off and at the final whistle, they were all invited to join the Wasps huddle which created a striking image of the scale of all those who had been involved with creating the incredible legacy Wasps have established over the years.

Sue Martineau was a particular driving force behind founding the club. From being the last club in London to allow women in the bar to the first men’s Premiership side to have a women’s team, it’s been quite the journey for Wasps thanks to the determination of strong women like Martineau at the helm.

In the background of our conversation, the mood is one of celebration and connection. Former players were playing touch rugby on the pitch, there were Wasps shirts aplenty, and groups of current and former players and staff surrounding the clubhouse at Twyford Avenue, all of which created a buzz of joyful reminisce about what it means to be a Wasp.

Despite the slightest tinge of sadness in the air, the overall mood is one of happiness and celebration as Martineau recounted the beginnings of the women’s side that went on to become one of the most well-renowned clubs in the country.

She said: “There were a group of us leaving Loughborough and we needed a home. Finchley had a team, but they didn’t want us, they said ‘No we don’t want six or seven players coming into our team.' We were on tour in Nijmegen and I bumped into a Wasp player at the bar. I said ‘I’m looking for a club with my teammates’ and he gave me the contact details of Ivor Montlake down at Wasps.

“So I wrote to him, because there were no mobile phones in those days, and he said we’ve got an AGM, prepare something and come down. It was in Repton Avenue and I asked a couple of friends to come with me. As we were walking up the path I could see all these faces in the windows, and when we got in there I was told to do the presentation.

"I stood up in front of them and said we have to have somewhere to play and if all you can give us is a pitch and a changing room, that’s enough. We’ve got the most fantastic group of players, we have to expand this team, this has to keep going, and they said 'we’ll have a vote' on it.

"We had the most wonderful players part of our era including Red Rose number one Karen Almond. We said we’ve got the best player in the country, she needs a home.

“ I went back and I received a letter two days later to say it [the vote] was unanimous and not only will we give you a pitch and a changing room, but we want you completely integrated into the club. I then got a job in London as a teacher and we started the committee.

“It was then a case of them saying they’d get us a set of shirts, and they gave us the black and yellow. We said thank you, but actually, we’d like the black because they were the ones the men’s first team played in. What we had to do in those days was work in the kitchen on a Saturday to serve the men to earn our place to play rugby on the Sunday. We didn’t mind because we were so happy to have a home and be playing rugby.”

In 1987, Wasps and Richmond became the first women's teams ever to play at Twickenham when they played in the championship final. Martineau captained the victorious Wasps team and became the first woman to lift a trophy at Twickenham.

The part that Wasps have played in women’s rugby and women’s sport has been monumental and has helped paved the way for the game to reach new heights such as those that were celebrated in April as the Red Roses played in their first-ever standalone fixture in front of 58,000 people at the home of English Rugby.

Martineau said: “When you’re young you just fight for the moment. I was so jealous that the men always had everything on a plate, and it seemed like us women had to fight for everything. That consumes you and we just kept striving and striving.

“We were the first women to ever play at Twickenham, which was 35 years before the England vs France game [in April 2023]. We were playing in a cup final against Richmond, we got to the pitch and there was no one there of course.

“There was the cleaner sweeping up and they got the key to open the changing rooms. We came running out onto the pitch with about five people in the stand opposite. The other week when England played France, 58,000 people in attendance, that was emotional. Walking up there we thought this is how far it’s come, this is how far women’s rugby has come. The atmosphere was fantastic.”

For Martineau her game at Twickenham held special memories due to the injury she played the duration of the historic fixture with.

“Playing at Twickenham and holding the cup, to be the first woman ever to hold a trophy up at Twickenham was very special, and I did it with a broken arm! Two weeks before, I broke my arm but I couldn’t miss it.

“The physio in the team, she cut off the cast for me, and the coach brought a soft cast, but there was no way I was not going to be on that pitch! The next morning I had to call my mum and say ‘Guess what I did yesterday!’ I’d been interviewed on TV and someone from home had seen and said to my mum, ‘I saw your Sue on TV yesterday, she was playing at Twickenham.’ My mum replied ‘No she’s not, she’s got a broken arm,’” she said with a laugh.

Alongside Wasps, other women’s clubs in London played a massive part in rugby's history, and as such they remain a close-knit group to this day.

“It was a really special day, and it was those sorts of things that started to put women’s rugby on the map. It’s not just us Wasps legends, but Saracens and Richmond were really big teams at that time. We’ve got a Wasps Women’s Founders’ dinner on the 12th September and Saracens’ founders are bringing a table [of people], and Richmond’s founders are bringing a table.”

While their final day in the Premier 15s was one of celebration, the adversity the club has faced over the past year brings an underlying bittersweet sadness to the day. Martineau remained confident however that all those involved with Wasps will keep the spirit of the club alive no matter what level of competition they are playing at.

The former back row said: “We’re devastated about what’s happened to the women and the men. It’s very tough for those players, and what people don’t realise is that it’s livelihoods that have been torn apart and hopes and dreams.

"People have had to move on and find different things and find other clubs but actually, those things make you stronger.

“Wasps will come back in some form, but this community will never go away. This amateur club will never go away.

"We started as amateurs, and that’s why I think we will be okay. I’m confident there will always be a women’s side down here and if not, we [Wasps legends] will be getting on our kit and coming down here!

"We will never ever let women’s rugby at Wasps die,” she added with immense pride.